While most of the new tax law – the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – has to do with reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, some provisions relate to individual taxpayers. Before we get into the details, be aware that almost everything listed below sunsets after 2025, with the tax structure reverting to its current form in 2026 unless Congress acts between now and then. The...

After initially delaying a rule intended to prevent financial advisers from steering their clients to bad retirement investments, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that the rule goes into effect on June 9, 2017, but its future is still unclear. Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order delaying the so-called fiduciary rule, the first part of which was scheduled to go...

Starting October 1, 2013, people who lack health insurance can start signing up for coverage through the new Internet-based health insurance marketplaces set up under the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Most of those who don’t already have insurance will have to buy coverage by March 31, 2014 or pay a penalty. But if you already have Medicare, you have nothing to worry about. You have...

As part of the tax compromise Congress approved to avoid tumbling down the “fiscal cliff,” the amount that is exempted from estate taxes will remain the same as it has been for the past two years, although the maximum tax rate will rise by 5 percentage points. The American Taxpayer Relief Act, which passed the House by a vote of 257 to 167, permanently sets the estate tax exemption at $5 million...

How much is something worth if it can never be sold? When the children of art dealer Ileana Sonnabend inherited her valuable collection of artwork in 2007, among the pieces was a ground-breaking “combine” by Robert Rauschenberg titled “Canyon.” The children paid $471 million in federal and state estate taxes on their mother’s estimated $1 billion collection, but they did not think they had to...

Now that the votes are counted (almost all of them, anyway) and President Obama has a second term, what does it mean for seniors? While President Obama’s re-election means Medicare and Medicaid as we know them will likely be preserved at least for the next four years, many challenges are still ahead. One of the biggest outcomes of the election is that the Affordable Care Act (ACA – a.k.a....